Generating suggested search queries

ABSTRACT

Disclosed are various embodiments for generating suggested search queries that are relevant to a user supplied search query. A user supplied search query is received. Historical search queries are identified that are relevant and/or similar to the user supplied search query. The identified historical queries are then ranked according to various factors.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of and claims the benefit of U.S.patent application Ser. No. 12/965,476, entitled “GENERATING SUGGESTEDSEARCH QUERIES,” and filed Dec. 10, 2010, which is hereby incorporatedby reference in its entirety.

BACKGROUND

Search systems can be employed in various settings, including in ageneral purpose setting or in an electronic commerce system. Searchsystems can surface various items in a data store based on keywordmatching, relevance, similarity, and other measures. Some search queriessubmitted by users may not surface any items in a data store regardlessof the matching. In an electronic commerce system, additionalinformation is known about search results (e.g., products in a catalog)in a data store.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Many aspects of the present disclosure can be better understood withreference to the following drawings. The components in the drawings arenot necessarily to scale, emphasis instead being placed upon clearlyillustrating the principles of the disclosure. Moreover, in thedrawings, like reference numerals designate corresponding partsthroughout the several views.

Many aspects of the present disclosure can be better understood withreference to the following drawings. The components in the drawings arenot necessarily to scale, emphasis instead being placed upon clearlyillustrating the principles of the disclosure. Moreover, in thedrawings, like reference numerals designate corresponding partsthroughout the several views.

FIG. 1 is a drawing of a networked environment including a computingdevice executing a search application according to an embodiment of thepresent disclosure.

FIG. 2 is a drawing of a user interface generated by the computingdevice of FIG. 1 according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 3 is a drawing of a user interface generated by the computingdevice of FIG. 1 according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 4 is a drawing of a user interface generated by the computingdevice of FIG. 1 according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 5 is a drawing of a flowchart that illustrates one example of theoperation of a search application executed in the computing devicedepicted in FIG. 1 according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 6 is a drawing of one example of the computing device of FIG. 1according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The various embodiments described herein related to generating suggestedsearch terms that can be employed to locate one or more items in a datastore. In some embodiments, the suggested search terms can be employedto locate products in an electronic commerce system. During theinteractions of a user with an electronic commerce system, for example,search queries submitted by a user to a search engine may yield fewand/or no search results. In some scenarios, search queries submitted bya user may yield search results that do not result in a high rate ofconversion, or product purchases. Other scenarios can be appreciated inwhich it may be desired to provide higher quality search results to auser of an electronic commerce system. Accordingly, embodiments of thedisclosure described herein relate to systems and methods of generatingsuggested queries based at least upon historical search queriessubmitted by other users as well as various metrics and other data aboutthe historical search queries that are housed in a data store.

With reference to FIG. 1, shown is a networked environment 100 accordingto various embodiments. The networked environment 100 includes at leastone computing device 103, a data store 105, and at least one client 106in communication with the computing device 103 via a network 109. Thenetwork 109 includes, for example, the Internet, intranets, extranets,wide area networks (WANs), local area networks (LANs), wired networks,wireless networks, or other suitable networks, etc., or any combinationof two or more such networks.

The computing device 103 may comprise, for example, a server computer orany other system providing computing capability. Alternatively, aplurality of computing devices 103 may be employed that are arranged,for example, in one or more server banks or computer banks or otherarrangements. For example, a plurality of computing devices 103 togethermay comprise, for example, a cloud computing resource, a grid computingresource, and/or any other distributed computing arrangement. Suchcomputing devices 103 may be located in a single installation or may bedispersed among many different geographical locations. In oneembodiment, the computing device 103 represents a virtualized computersystem executing on one or more physical computing systems. For purposesof convenience, the computing device 103 is referred to herein in thesingular. Even though the computing device 103 is referred to in thesingular, it is understood that a plurality of computing devices 103 maybe employed in the various arrangements as described above.

Various applications and/or other functionality may be executed in thecomputing device 103 according to various embodiments. Also, variousdata and/or items are stored in a data store 105 that is accessible tothe computing device 103. The data store 105 may be representative of aplurality of data stores that can be geographically disparate andaccessible to the computing device 103 via a network 109, as can beappreciated. As a non-limiting example, applications facilitatingembodiments of this disclosure can be executed on the computing device103, and other devices dedicated to providing the functionality of adata store 105 or data store can be located in a separate installationaccessible to the computing device 103. Additionally, the items and/ordata stored in the data store 105, for example, are associated with theoperation of the various applications and/or functional entitiesdescribed below.

The data store 105, in the non-limiting example of an electroniccommerce system facilitated by the computing device 103, can includeitems that are associated with products 108 available in the electroniccommerce system. The data store 105 can also include other data relevantto products, such as, but not limited to, the following: productcategory, title, keywords, description, price, weight, shipping methods,related images, reviews, similar items, meta data, hidden text, a listof merchants selling the item, stock number, other associatedcategories, page view history, etc. The data store 105 can also includeother data related to products 108 as can be appreciated, but are notnecessary to discuss herein for an understanding of the variousembodiments of the disclosure. Additionally, in the case of a computingdevice 103 facilitating a content delivery system other than anelectronic commerce system (e.g., a general purpose search engine,etc.), the data store 105 can store other data associated with items forwhich the content delivery system is suited.

The data store 105 can also include information about users of thesystem. User data 110 can include a user profile associated with thevarious users of, for example, an electronic commerce system facilitatedby the computing device 103. Such a user profile can include data aboutthe user, browsing history, purchase history, product interests,demographic information, location, a product wish list, etc.Additionally, user data 110 can store information about various usersessions that describe the interactions of a user with the computingdevice 103. By way of illustration, purchase history in a user profilecan identify each of the purchases made by users via an electroniccommerce system. As another example, browse history data sets forth thebrowsing activity of customers when they visit an electronic commercesystem. The browse history data can include data indicating how a userhas navigated through an electronic commerce system and the products orcommunities in which a user has viewed and/or expressed an interest.

The data store 105 can also include data about historical search queries113. Historical search queries 113 can include search queries submittedby users in the past that have yielded search results. Accordingly,query terms 115 that describe the search terms associated with thehistorical query 115. Query associations 117 can also be stored in thedata store 105 for each historical search query 113. A query association117 can include meta data associated with the historical search query113 that can be used to determine relevance and/or similarity to asearch query submitted by a user to the search application 111, as willbe described in further detail herein. One example of a queryassociation 117 can be a geographic location associated with the userswho have submitted the historical search query 113 in the past. Anothernon-limiting example of a query association 117 can include a productcategory or marketplace within an electronic commerce system in whichthe historical search query 113 was submitted by a user. In someembodiments, a query association 117 can include another search querywith which a particular search query should be associated. As oneexample, the search application 111 may determine that a percentage ofusers above a predefined threshold have entered two different queries ina single session. Accordingly, the search application 111 can designatethese two queries as related. Therefore, a historical search query entry113 associated with these queries can have a query association 117 thatpoints to the other.

Historical search queries can also be associated with various othermetrics 119, which can be stored in the data store 105. Metrics 119associated with a historical query can include a number of searchresults with which the query is associated, a popularity of thehistorical search query, a conversion rate associated with the query,and other metrics as can be appreciated. In one embodiment, a conversionrate associated with a historical query can be based at least upon apercentage of users in an electronic commerce system that purchase aproduct that is a search result associated with the historical query.

Various other behavioral data can also be stored as metrics 119associated with the query. In some embodiments, the search application111 or other application can track user behavior in a session, relatethis behavior to search terms entered by the user during the session,and store the data as a metric 119. As one example, the searchapplication 111 can track an amount of time a user spends browsingsearch results after a search query is submitted to the searchapplication 111 and search results returned to the user. In one example,if a user spends more time browsing search results relative to othersearch queries, it may be deduced that the search query returnedrelevant results that held the user's attention. As another example, thesearch application 111 can track whether a user adds a search resultthat is a product to a virtual shopping cart in an electronic commercesystem. The search application 111 can deduce from this behavior thatthe search query provided relevant search results.

The computing device 103 is configured to execute various applicationssuch as, for example, an application server 110 and a search application111, and potentially other applications. In one embodiment, anapplication server 110 is executed to provide for interaction betweenthe applications on the computing device 103 and clients 106 and/ormobile devices 107 as will be described. To this end, the applicationserver 110 may also include, for example, a web server application orsimilar application as can be appreciated. Other systems and/orapplications facilitated or executed by an application server 110 mayalso include, but are not limited to, order fulfillment systems, dynamicnetwork or web page servers, inventory systems, or other systems as canbe appreciated. However, such systems are not described herein indetail.

Users of the search application 111, whether in the context of anelectronic commerce system, a general purpose search engine, or othersystem, may attempt to use search terms or search phrases to locate oneor more items in the data store 105. In the depicted non-limitingembodiment, users of the search application 111 may submit searchqueries to the search application 111 to attempt to locate productsavailable via an electronic commerce system facilitated by the computingdevice 103.

The client 106 and mobile device 107 are representative of a pluralityof devices that may be coupled to the network 109. The client 106 maycomprise, for example, a processor-based system such as a computersystem. Such a computer system may be embodied in the form of a desktopcomputer, a laptop computer, a personal digital assistant, a cellulartelephone, set-top box, music players, web pads, tablet computersystems, or other devices with like capability.

The client 106 may be configured to execute various applications such asa browser 123 and/or other applications. The browser 123 may be executedin a client 106, for example, to access and render network pages 126,such as web pages, or other content served up by the computing device103 and/or other servers. The client 106 may be configured to executeapplications beyond a browser 123 such as, for example, emailapplications, instant message applications, and/or other applications.Accordingly, in some embodiments a user can manipulate a user interfacepresented in the form of network pages 126 shown on a display device 151via the browser 123 or other application that causes interaction withthe application server 110 executed by the computing device 103. Theapplication server 110 executed on the computing device 103 canfacilitate the generation of user interfaces on a client 106 bytransmitting data to the client 106 that can be rendered by a browser123 or other application to create the various user interfaces.

Another example of a device that can interact with the searchapplication 111 includes a mobile device 107, which can execute a mobileapplication 155 such as a browser that can render network pagesgenerated by the search application 111. In another embodiment, themobile application 155 can be tailored to access data provided by thesearch application 111 and can include client side code that generates auser interface on a display device of the mobile device 107.Accordingly, a user can submit questions to the search application 111as well as browse and/or submit responses to questions published by thesearch application 111 via the mobile application 155. The mobile device107 may comprise a mobile device including cellular telephone and dataaccess, location detection hardware, and other hardware and softwarecomponents. The mobile device 107 can detect the location of a userusing global positioning system (GPS) or other location detectionfunctionality, which can be submitted by the mobile application 155 tothe search application 111. In one example, global positioning system(GPS) functionality provided by the mobile device 107 can provide alocation of the client to the mobile application 155, which can in turntransmit a location of the client to the search application 111. In oneembodiment, the search application 111 can utilize location basedservices and applications executed on the mobile device 107 to determinea location of the user, which can, in some embodiments, be employed toassist with generating suggested search queries.

It should also be appreciated that a client of the search application111 can be another software module that facilitates communication with aclient 106 or mobile device 107. As one example, the search application111 can provide an application programming interface (API) through whichanother software application can access the functionality of the searchapplication 111. In one embodiment, a presentation layer module mayinteract with the search application 111 by submitting a search requestto a search application 111 API, which can respond with a searchresponse that includes various search results. Other variations shouldbe appreciated by a person of ordinary skill in the art.

Therefore, in the context of the non-limiting exemplary frameworkpresented above, in order to facilitate embodiments of the presentdisclosure, the search application 111 is executed to collect andprocess information relating to user search queries regarding relatedproducts, product categories, and/or other data accessible to thecomputing device 103. To this end, the search application 111 canfacilitate the generating of a search term user interface element thatallows a user to submit search terms for items the user wishes thelocate in the data store 105. In addition, the search application 111can provide suggested search terms to a user based at least uponcharacters entered in a search term user interface provided by thesearch application 111 on a client or mobile device.

The search application 111 can employ various algorithms that take intoaccount various factors and data to generate search query suggestions inresponse to a search query received from a client. Additionally, thereare numerous practical applications of the generating of suggestedsearch queries, as will be described herein. In one embodiment, uponreceiving a search query from a client or mobile device, the searchapplication 111 can determine whether the search query is associatedwith any search results in the data store 105. In the case of anelectronic commerce system facilitated by the at least one computingdevice 103, the search application 111 can determine whether the searchquery is associated with any products 147 in the data store 105. As canbe appreciated, to make such a determination, the search application 111can execute a similarity and/or relevance algorithm against a searchindex that indexes various data regarding the products 147.

If, in the above example, there are no products associated with thesearch query in the data store 105, the search application 111 canidentify whether there are historical search queries 113 that arerelevant and/or similar to the search query that are associated withsearch results and/or products in the data store 105. If there arehistorical search queries 113 that are relevant and/or similar to thesearch query, the search application 111 can generate a user interface,such as a network page, that includes one or more of these historicalsearch queries 113 as well as one or more of their associated searchresults.

In one embodiment of this disclosure, in order to identify similarand/or relevant historical search queries, the search application 111can determine if there are historical search queries 113 that areassociated with search results in the data store 105 by removing one ormore search term from the search query. The search application 111 canexamine the various permutations of resultant queries that result fromthe removal of search terms from the search query and determine if theymatch search terms of a historical search query 113 that is associatedwith search results. If the resultant search queries are associated withsearch results, they can be identified as potentially similar and/orrelevant historical search queries 113 relative to the original searchquery. The search application 111 can then rank the historical searchqueries 113 according to a number of search results associatedtherewith. As one example, a historical search query 113 so identifiedthat is associated with the most search results can be designated as thehighest ranked historical search query 113 relative to the user suppliedsearch query.

In some embodiments, as described above, the search application 111 canremove search terms from a user supplied search query until an exactmatch is found as a historical search query 113 that is associated withsearch results in the data store. In one embodiment of such a function,the search application 111 can be limited to only remove one search termfrom the user supplied search query. For example, if a user suppliedfour term search query that yields no products when a search of the datastore is executed using the search query, the search application 111 candetermine whether there are three term historical search queries 113using any three of the four terms that are associated with at least onesearch result. In this way, the likelihood that search application 111yields search results that are not relevant to the search query isreduced.

In another embodiment, the search application 111 can identifyhistorical queries similar and/or relevant historical search queries 113by calculating a phrase level edit distance of the search query relativeto historical search queries 113. A phrase level edit distance as can beimplemented in embodiments of the disclosure by determining a number ofphrase or word substitutions, or word additions and/or deletions,required to transform a search query submitted by a user into ahistorical query 113 in the data store 105. Accordingly, a historicalquery requiring the fewest number of word substitutions to arrive at thesearch query entered by a user can be ranked as the most similar and/orrelevant historical search query.

The search application 111 can also identify relevant and/or similarhistorical search queries in the data store 105 by performing varioustext similarity functions. The search application 111 can determinerelevance and/or similarity by calculating a cosine similarity, jaccadsimilarity, dice similarity, and other textual similarity functions ascan be appreciated. Accordingly, in the case of a search query submittedby a user that yields no search results, the search application 111 canemploy one or more textual similarity functions to identify the mostsimilar historical search query 113 that is associated with a searchresult, and generate a user interface with one or more of the mostsimilar historical search queries 113.

The search application 111 can also identify the importance of words ina user supplied search query and assign a weight to each of the wordsaccording to its importance. Accordingly, the search application 111 canthen identify a similar and/or relevant historical search query 113using a vector based similarity function. In one embodiment, in the caseof a multi-word user supplied search query, the search application 111can determine whether the individual words in the search queryconstitute a historical query 113 in the data store 105 that isassociated with one or more search results. The search application 111can then assign a higher weight to a word in the search query that isassociated with a fewer number of search results greater than one. Inthis way, common words that may be associated with a large number ofsearch results are weighted less, as it can be deduced that those searchterms that are associated with fewer search results are more likely toyield a search result that is relevant to the user supplied searchquery.

The search application 111 can also rank the identified historicalsearch queries 113 in various other ways independent of textualsimilarity that can facilitate the identification of a historical searchquery 113 that can be provided to a user, particularly in the case of auser supplied search query that yields no search results. As describedabove, historical search queries 113 that are identified as relevantand/or similar to a user supplied search query can be ranked accordingto a number of search results with which they are associated. Historicalsearch queries 113 that are identified by the search application 111 canalso be ranked according to a conversion rate of the historical searchquery. In other words, the search application 111 can rank a historicalsearch query 113 in an electronic commerce system that yields in thehighest number of purchases, profits, revenue, or other metrics.

Historical search queries 113 that are identified by the searchapplication 111 can also be ranked by popularity. In other words, thesearch application 111 can rank a historical search query 113 submittedby the number of users who submitted the query, the number of times thequery was executed, or other aggregate metrics. Historical searchqueries 113 that are identified by the search application 111 can alsobe ranked according to their query associations 117. For example, if auser supplied search query is submitted with a filter, the searchapplication 111 can rank a historical search query 113 associated withthe same filter higher than other historical search queries. In the caseof an electronic commerce system facilitating multiple marketplaces aswell as multiple product categories, one example of a filter can be themarketplace and/or product category filter supplied by the user whensubmitting the search query.

The search application 111 can identify relevant and/or similarhistorical search queries 113 relative to a user supplied search queryby applying one of the above methods. Additionally, the searchapplication 111 can also apply any combination of the above factors andweight the factors in various ways. As one example, the searchapplication 111 can identify relevant historical queries by removingsearch terms until an exact match of a historical query yielding searchresults is found. As noted above, because the search application 111 canperform such a process on the various permutations of queries that wouldresult from removing one search term from a multi-term search query,this may result in multiple historical search queries that yield searchresults. Accordingly, in one example, the search application 111 cangenerate a ranking of the historical search queries according topopularity, conversion rate, a marketplace association, and any otherfactor as can be appreciated.

Additionally, the search application 111 can restrict the historicalsearch queries 113 that are analyzed to a particular time period. As onenon-limiting example, the search application 111 can analyze historicalsearch queries 113 in the data store 105 that were submitted by otherusers in the thirty days previous to the time the user supplied searchquery is received.

Having described various ways that historical search queries 113 thatare similar and/or relevant to a user supplied search query can beidentified, reference is now made to FIG. 2, which depicts a userinterface that can be facilitated by the search application 111 invarious embodiments of the disclosure. The user interfaces shown inFIGS. 2-4 can be generated by the search application 111 or othersoftware module in association with the search application 111. As onenon-limiting example, a presentation layer can generate a network pagein a presentation language and encodes for display search results andother data regarding search queries generated by the search application111.

The non-limiting user interface example shown in FIG. 2 shows oneapplication of the way in which historical search queries 113 identifiedby the search application 111 can be employed to generate search resultsfor a user. In the depicted example, a search query received by thesearch application in a search term user interface element 201 yields nosearch results. In the context of an electronic commerce systemfacilitated by a computing device 103 executing the search application111, the search query is not associated with any products available viathe electronic commerce system.

Accordingly, in response to a search query that does not yield anyproduct search results, the search application can identify similarand/or relevant historical search queries 113 in a data store 105. Inthe depicted example, the search application removes a search term fromthe user supplied search query, and determines whether the variouspermutations of the resultant query are stored in the data store 105 asa historical search query 113 that is in turn associated with productsearch results. In FIG. 2, the search application also ranks thehistorical queries according to a number of product search results withwhich the historical search query 113 is associated. Accordingly, thesearch application 111 facilitates generation of a user interface thatincludes the historical search queries 113 displayed in a ranked orderaccording to the number of product search results with which they areassociated. The search application 111 can also facilitate generation ofa user interface that displays a subset of search results with each ofthe historical queries 113 identified by the search application 111.

Reference is now made to FIG. 3, which depicts an alternative example ofa user interface facilitated by the search application 111. In FIG. 3, auser supplied query is associated with a number of search results, andthe search application 111 can identify historical search queries 113that are relevant and/or similar to the user supplied search query tosupplement the user interface with additional search results 301. In thedepicted example, the search application 111 identifies relatedhistorical search queries 113 by removing a search term from the usersupplied search query and determining whether the resultant querycorresponds to a historical search query 113. In the depicted example,the search application 111 can facilitate generation of a user interfacethat displays search results corresponding to the highest rankedhistorical search queries 113. As described above, a historical searchquery 113 that is related to a user supplied search query can be rankedaccording to various factors, such as, popularity, conversion rate ofassociated search results, profitability of a product search result, andother factors as can be appreciated.

FIG. 4 depicts an alternative example of a user interface that can befacilitated by the search application 111. In the example of FIG. 4, theuser supplied search query is associated with product search results inan electronic commerce system. The search application 111 can beemployed to identify historical search queries 113 that are similarand/or relevant to the user supplied search query as described above. Inthe depicted example, the search application 111 can facilitategeneration of a user interface that includes hyperlinks to historicalsearch queries 113 that are similar and/or relevant to the user suppliedsearch query. Additionally, the search application 111 can determinefrom a user session whether the user follows a hyperlink that isdisplayed and create a query association 117 between the user suppliedsearch query and the historical query 113 associated with the hyperlink,which can facilitate display of higher quality historical search queries113 for other users. The search application 111 can also track otherattributes of a user session in this regard as described above.

Referring next to FIG. 5, shown is a flowchart that provides one exampleof the operation of a portion of the search application 111 according tovarious embodiments. It is understood that the flowchart of FIG. 5provides merely an example of the many different types of functionalarrangements that may be employed to implement the operation of theportion of the search application 111 as described herein. As analternative, the flowchart of FIG. 5 may be viewed as depicting anexample of steps of a method implemented in the computing device 103(FIG. 1) according to one or more embodiments.

Beginning with box 501, the search application 111 receives a usersupplied search query having at least one search term. In box 503, thesearch application 111 identifies at least one historical search querythat is similar and/or relevant to the user supplied search query, andin box 505, the search application 111 ranks the identified historicalsearch queries according to various factors and/or metrics that yieldsearch results that are relevant and/or similar to the user suppliedsearch query. As described above, the search application 111 candetermine relevance and/or similarity by executing a textual similarityfunction to identify historical queries 113 that have the most textualsimilarity to the user supplied search query.

As one example, the search application 111 can also remove a search termfrom the user supplied search query and determine whether a historicalsearch query 113 is associated with the resultant search query. Thesearch application 111 can also determine a phrase level edit distanceof historical search queries 113 from the user supplied search query, orany other textual similarity function described above. The searchapplication 111 can rank search results according to various factorsand/or metrics as described above. The search application 111 canidentify a marketplace or other filter applied to the user suppliedsearch, and rank historical search queries 113 performed in associatedwith the same filter higher than those that are not. The searchapplication 111 can also rank the historical search queries 113identified as relevant and/or similar to the search query according toother metrics and/or factors, including, but not limited to, popularity,conversion rate, click-through rate, and other factors as describedabove. Additionally, the historical search queries 113 can be rankedbased on a combination of various factors, where each factor can beweighted to generate such a ranking.

With reference to FIG. 6, shown is a schematic block diagram of thecomputing device 103 according to an embodiment of the presentdisclosure. The computing device 103 includes at least one processorcircuit, for example, having a processor 603 and a memory 606, both ofwhich are coupled to a local interface 609. To this end, the computingdevice 103 may comprise, for example, at least one server computer orlike device. The local interface 609 may comprise, for example, a databus with an accompanying address/control bus or other bus structure ascan be appreciated.

Stored in the memory 606 are both data and several components that areexecutable by the processor 603. In particular, stored in the memory 606and executable by the processor 603 are the application server 110,search application 111, and potentially other applications. Also storedin the memory 606 may be a data store 105 and other data. In addition,an operating system may be stored in the memory 606 and executable bythe processor 603.

It is understood that there may be other applications that are stored inthe memory 606 and are executable by the processors 603 as can beappreciated. Where any component discussed herein is implemented in theform of software, any one of a number of programming languages may beemployed such as, for example, C, C++, C#, Objective C, Java,Javascript, Perl, PHP, Visual Basic, Python, Ruby, Delphi, Flash, orother programming languages.

A number of software components are stored in the memory 606 and areexecutable by the processor 603. In this respect, the term “executable”means a program file that is in a form that can ultimately be run by theprocessor 603. Examples of executable programs may be, for example, acompiled program that can be translated into machine code in a formatthat can be loaded into a random access portion of the memory 606 andrun by the processor 603, source code that may be expressed in properformat such as object code that is capable of being loaded into a randomaccess portion of the memory 606 and executed by the processor 603, orsource code that may be interpreted by another executable program togenerate instructions in a random access portion of the memory 606 to beexecuted by the processor 603, etc. An executable program may be storedin any portion or component of the memory 606 including, for example,random access memory (RAM), read-only memory (ROM), hard drive,solid-state drive, USB flash drive, memory card, optical disc such ascompact disc (CD) or digital versatile disc (DVD), floppy disk, magnetictape, or other memory components.

The memory 606 is defined herein as including both volatile andnonvolatile memory and data storage components. Volatile components arethose that do not retain data values upon loss of power. Nonvolatilecomponents are those that retain data upon a loss of power. Thus, thememory 606 may comprise, for example, random access memory (RAM),read-only memory (ROM), hard disk drives, solid-state drives, USB flashdrives, memory cards accessed via a memory card reader, floppy disksaccessed via an associated floppy disk drive, optical discs accessed viaan optical disc drive, magnetic tapes accessed via an appropriate tapedrive, and/or other memory components, or a combination of any two ormore of these memory components. In addition, the RAM may comprise, forexample, static random access memory (SRAM), dynamic random accessmemory (DRAM), or magnetic random access memory (MRAM) and other suchdevices. The ROM may comprise, for example, a programmable read-onlymemory (PROM), an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), anelectrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), or otherlike memory device.

Also, the processor 603 may represent multiple processors 603 and thememory 606 may represent multiple memories 606 that operate in parallelprocessing circuits, respectively. In such a case, the local interface609 may be an appropriate network 109 (FIG. 1) that facilitatescommunication between any two of the multiple processors 603, betweenany processor 603 and any of the memories 606, or between any two of thememories 606, etc. The local interface 609 may comprise additionalsystems designed to coordinate this communication, including, forexample, performing load balancing. The processor 603 may be ofelectrical or of some other available construction.

Although the search application 111 and other various systems describedherein may be embodied in software or code executed by general purposehardware as discussed above, as an alternative the same may also beembodied in dedicated hardware or a combination of software/generalpurpose hardware and dedicated hardware. If embodied in dedicatedhardware, each can be implemented as a circuit or state machine thatemploys any one of or a combination of a number of technologies. Thesetechnologies may include, but are not limited to, discrete logiccircuits having logic gates for implementing various logic functionsupon an application of one or more data signals, application specificintegrated circuits having appropriate logic gates, or other components,etc. Such technologies are generally well known by those skilled in theart and, consequently, are not described in detail herein.

The flowchart of FIG. 5 shows the functionality and operation of animplementation of portions of the search application 111. If embodied insoftware, each block may represent a module, segment, or portion of codethat comprises program instructions to implement the specified logicalfunction(s). The program instructions may be embodied in the form ofsource code that comprises human-readable statements written in aprogramming language or machine code that comprises numericalinstructions recognizable by a suitable execution system such as aprocessor 603 in a computer system or other system. The machine code maybe converted from the source code, etc. If embodied in hardware, eachblock may represent a circuit or a number of interconnected circuits toimplement the specified logical function(s).

Although the flowchart of FIG. 5 shows a specific order of execution, itis understood that the order of execution may differ from that which isdepicted. For example, the order of execution of two or more blocks maybe scrambled relative to the order shown. Also, two or more blocks shownin succession in FIG. 5 may be executed concurrently or with partialconcurrence. Further, in some embodiments, one or more of the blocksshown in FIG. 5 may be skipped or omitted. In addition, any number ofcounters, state variables, warning semaphores, or messages might beadded to the logical flow described herein, for purposes of enhancedutility, accounting, performance measurement, or providingtroubleshooting aids, etc. It is understood that all such variations arewithin the scope of the present disclosure.

Also, any logic or application described herein, including the searchapplication 111, that comprises software or code can be embodied in anynon-transitory computer-readable medium for use by or in connection withan instruction execution system such as, for example, a processor 603 ina computer system or other system. In this sense, the logic maycomprise, for example, statements including instructions anddeclarations that can be fetched from the computer-readable medium andexecuted by the instruction execution system. In the context of thepresent disclosure, a “computer-readable medium” can be any medium thatcan contain, store, or maintain the logic or application describedherein for use by or in connection with the instruction executionsystem. The computer-readable medium can comprise any one of manyphysical media such as, for example, magnetic, optical, or semiconductormedia. More specific examples of a suitable computer-readable mediumwould include, but are not limited to, magnetic tapes, magnetic floppydiskettes, magnetic hard drives, memory cards, solid-state drives, USBflash drives, or optical discs. Also, the computer-readable medium maybe a random access memory (RAM) including, for example, static randomaccess memory (SRAM) and dynamic random access memory (DRAM), ormagnetic random access memory (MRAM). In addition, the computer-readablemedium may be a read-only memory (ROM), a programmable read-only memory(PROM), an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), anelectrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), or othertype of memory device.

It should be emphasized that the above-described embodiments of thepresent disclosure are merely possible examples of implementations setforth for a clear understanding of the principles of the disclosure.Many variations and modifications may be made to the above-describedembodiment(s) without departing substantially from the spirit andprinciples of the disclosure. All such modifications and variations areintended to be included herein within the scope of this disclosure andprotected by the following claims.

Therefore, the following is claimed:
 1. A non-transitorycomputer-readable medium embodying a program executable in a computingdevice, the program comprising: code that receives a user suppliedsearch query, the user supplied search query comprising a plurality ofsearch terms; code that removes at least one of the plurality of searchterms from the user supplied search query to generate a plurality ofresultant search queries; code that determines whether individual onesof the plurality of resultant search queries match a respectivehistorical search query in a data store accessible to the computingdevice that is associated with at least one search result in the datastore; code that identifies the respective historical search query asbeing relevant to the user supplied search query by executing at leastone relevance function and at least one similarity function against anindex of the respective historical search queries with the user suppliedsearch query, wherein the at least one relevance function comprises aphrase level edit distance comparison of the user supplied search queryto the respective historical search query; code that generates a rankingof the respective historical search queries according to a number ofsearch results with which each of the respective historical searchqueries is associated, wherein a first historical search queryassociated with a higher number of search results is ranked higher thana second historical search query associated with a lower number ofsearch results; and code that generates a user interface displaying therespective historical search queries in an order according to theranking.
 2. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1,wherein the code that identifies the respective historical search queryas being relevant to the user supplied search query further comprises:code that identifies a plurality of search results associated withindividual ones of the plurality of resultant search queries; and codethat determines whether individual ones of the of the plurality ofsearch results associated with individual ones of the plurality ofresultant search queries match the at least one search result in thedata store.
 3. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1,wherein the program further comprises: code that generates a ranking ofthe respective historical search queries based at least in part upon thephrase level edit distance comparison of the user supplied search queryto the respective historical search query.
 4. The non-transitorycomputer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the code that generates theuser interface displaying the respective historical search queriesfurther comprises code that generates a hyperlink associated withindividual ones of the respective historical search queries.
 5. Asystem, comprising: at least one of one or more computing devices; and asearch application executable via at least one of the one or morecomputing devices, the search application comprising: logic thatreceives a user supplied search query, the user supplied search querycomprising a plurality of search terms; logic that removes at least oneof the plurality of search terms from the user supplied search query togenerate a plurality of resultant search queries; logic that determineswhether individual ones of the plurality of resultant search queriesmatch a respective historical search query in a data store accessible tothe at least one of the one or more computing devices that is associatedwith at least one search result in the data store; logic that identifiesthe respective historical search query as being relevant to the usersupplied search query by executing at least one relevance function andat least one similarity function against an index of the respectivehistorical search queries with the user supplied search query, whereinthe at least one relevance function comprises a phrase level editdistance comparison of the user supplied search query to the respectivehistorical search query; logic that generates a ranking of therespective historical search queries according to a number of searchresults with which each of the respective historical search queries isassociated, wherein a first historical search query associated with ahigher number of search results is ranked higher than a secondhistorical search query associated with a lower number of searchresults; and logic that generates a user interface displaying therespective historical search queries in an order according to theranking.
 6. The system of claim 5, wherein the logic that identifies therespective historical search query as being relevant to the usersupplied search query further comprises: logic that generates theranking of the respective historical search query according to a numberof products with which the respective historical search query isassociated.
 7. The system of claim 5, wherein the logic that identifiesthe respective historical search query as being relevant to the usersupplied search query further comprises: logic that identifies a subsetof the historical search queries submitted by users over a predeterminedperiod of time; and logic that indexes the subset of the historicalsearch queries in the index.
 8. The system of claim 5, wherein the logicthat generates the user interface displaying the respective historicalsearch queries further comprises: logic that encodes for display asubset of the at least one search result associated with the respectivehistorical search query in the user interface; and logic that encodesfor display a historical search query hyperlink, the historical searchquery hyperlink linking to a search result user interface displaying theat least one search result associated with the respective historicalsearch query.
 9. The system of claim 5, wherein the logic thatidentifies the respective historical search query as being relevant tothe user supplied search query further comprises: logic that generatesthe ranking of the respective historical search query according to aconversion rate of the respective historical search query, theconversion rate being a rate at which at least one product associatedwith the respective historical search query is purchased.
 10. The systemof claim 5, wherein the logic that identifies the respective historicalsearch query as being relevant to the user supplied search query furthercomprises: logic that generates the ranking of the respective historicalsearch query according to a popularity of the respective historicalsearch query, the popularity being based at least in part upon a numberof users who submitted the respective historical search query.
 11. Thesystem of claim 5, wherein the logic that identifies the respectivehistorical search query as being relevant to the user supplied searchquery further comprises: logic that generates the ranking of therespective historical search query according to a popularity of therespective historical search query, the popularity being based at leastin part upon a number of times that the respective historical searchquery was executed.
 12. The system of claim 11, wherein the searchapplication further comprises logic that increases a popularity metricassociated with the popularity of the respective historical search querywhen a user selects a hyperlink associated with the respectivehistorical search query and a search result associated with therespective historical search query.
 13. The system of claim 5, whereinthe logic that identifies the respective historical search query asbeing relevant to the user supplied search query further comprises:logic that associates at least one of a marketplace and a productcategory with the respective historical search query; and logic thatdesignates the respective historical search query as being relevant tothe user supplied search query when the user supplied search query isperformed in at least one of the marketplace and the product category.14. The system of claim 5, wherein the search application furthercomprises logic that assigns a weight to a search term in individualones of the resultant search queries; and the logic that identifies therespective historical search query as being relevant to the usersupplied search query further comprises logic that generates the rankingof the respective historical search query according to a number ofhighest weighted search terms in the individual ones of the resultantsearch queries that comprise the respective historical search query. 15.The system of claim 14, wherein the logic that assigns a weight to thesearch term in the individual ones of the resultant search queriesfurther comprises logic that assigns a higher weight to a first searchterm in the individual ones of the resultant search queries when thefirst search term is associated with a fewer number of historical searchqueries relative to a second search term in the individual ones of theresultant search queries.
 16. A method, comprising: receiving, via atleast one of one or more computing devices, a user supplied searchquery, the user supplied search query comprising a plurality of searchterms; removing, via at least one of the one or more computing devices,at least one of the plurality of search terms from the user suppliedsearch query to generate a plurality of resultant search queries;determining, via at least one of the one or more computing devices,whether individual ones of the plurality of resultant search queriesmatch a respective historical search query in a data store accessible tothe at least one of the one or more computing devices that is associatedwith at least one search result in the data store; identifying, via atleast one of the one or more computing devices, the respectivehistorical search query as being relevant to the user supplied searchquery by executing at least one relevance function and at least onesimilarity function against an index of the respective historical searchqueries with the user supplied search query, wherein the at least onerelevance function comprises a phrase level edit distance comparison ofthe user supplied search query to the respective historical searchquery; generating, via at least one of the one or more computingdevices, a ranking of the respective historical search queries accordingto a number of search results with which each of the respectivehistorical search queries is associated, wherein a first historicalsearch query associated with a higher number of search results is rankedhigher than a second historical search query associated with a lowernumber of search results; and generating, via at least one of the one ormore computing devices, a user interface displaying the respectivehistorical search queries in an order according to the ranking.
 17. Themethod of claim 16, wherein generating the user interface displaying therespective historical search queries further comprises generating, viaat least one of the one or more computing devices, a hyperlinkassociated with individual ones of the respective historical searchqueries.
 18. The method of claim 16, further comprising assigning, viaat least one of the one or more computing devices, a weight toindividual ones of the plurality of search terms, wherein a higherweight is assigned to a respective one of the plurality of search termsthat is associated with a respective historical search query that yieldsa fewest number of search results greater than zero than a respectiveone of the plurality of search terms that is associated with arespective historical search query that yields a greater number ofsearch results.
 19. The method of claim 18, wherein generating theranking of the respective historical search queries further comprisesassigning, via at least one of the one or more computing devices, ahigher rank to a first historical search query comprising higherweighted search terms than a second historical search query.
 20. Themethod of claim 16, further comprising generating, via at least one ofthe one or more computing devices, a ranking of the respectivehistorical search queries based at least in part upon the phrase leveledit distance comparison of the user supplied search query to therespective historical search query.